A phone screen lit up with a text message sparking screams in the quiet car. The girls stared at each other, wide-eyed and shocked with disbelief of their text. Immediately, they started planning matching pajamas, their speech and the countdown to the Texas Science and Engineering Fair had begun.
CHS9 students Ananya Ram, Shreya Chapagain and Sindhoora Vemula received first place with their project ‘Red Planet, Green Future’ at the Regional Science and Engineering Fair held at Fair Park and second place at the Dallas Regional Science Fair. They also earned a Space Exploration Scholarship and were state finalists at the Texas Science and Engineering Fair.
Their project, inspired by the space policy change in 2017, focused on creating a way to foster life beyond the Earth.
“We wanted to find a new way to colonize Mars,” Chapagain said. “By adding onto current research, we were able to find ways to help our science community and community, because Mars colonization cannot only benefit this science field, but it can benefit other people as they look towards a second Earth.”
Their project studied the process of improving fertility of Martian soils using salt water leaching, biochar, coconut coir and compost. Within 10 days, Mung beans were grown in treated soils under certain conditions. The results showed that coconut coir did better than the other stimulants.
Ram’s mother, Susmita Ramanand, speaks about the importance of the team’s project and how it impacts agricultural growth on Mars.
“It’s very difficult to colonize Mars, and we need to have people in the current generation thinking about the food shortage on Earth and trying to come up with solutions,” Ramanand said. “The girls’ project is like a seed, we have a small idea and we plant it and let it grow.”
Just like the trio’s bold vision to further improve the world on a universal scale, their state competition journey stemmed from their motivation and interests to join the Coppell High School Science Fair. CHS9 biology teacher Laronna Doggett emphasizes how participating in the science fair shapes students’ academics and career interests.
“Freshman students are trying to explore if STEM is a career choice that they want,” Doggett said “The science fair is something really good that allows these students to have that time and focus on the purpose they are interested in.”
Through the process of exploring the STEM field and immersing in their ideas, these students did not just gain accolades and create a project, they garnered skills that would last them a lifetime.
“Through the process of creating an experiment and analyzing our results. We learned how to write a full-blown research paper,” Ram said.
As the girls have grown both as students and participants in the science fair, they now carry perspective. When mentioning the science fair to others, they encourage students to join for the valuable experiences involved rather than titles and recognition.
“Being passionate about something helps you as a person,” Vemula said. “Working yourself out for something you don’t like is much worse than being yourself.”
For this team, success was not about winning, it was about being true and immersing themselves in interests they are intrigued by.
“Do whatever you’re passionate about and give it your all. Because it will always be worth it in the end,” Ram said.
Follow Zaara Shaik (@sincerely.zaara) and @CHSCampusNews on X.
